Isaiah 61:1-11
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion - to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendour.
4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. 5 Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. 6 And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. 7 Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.  
8 “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them. 9 Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.”
10 I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.
 
Last Sunday we tried to understand just something of the immeasurable, undeserved love of God. It’s a subject we can never really do justice to, and yet, incredibly, as we spend more time in the Bible we soon learn that God’s love for us is just the beginning of the story of how much we mean to Him. He loves all people, regardless of whether we choose to love or hate Him in return, but for those who do turn to Him in repentance, for those who do accept salvation in Jesus Christ, He does so much more. 
Isaiah served as a prophet to the nation of Israel. He dealt with the coming judgment of God, but he also revealed much about the coming of Jesus, the promised Messiah. Isaiah lived some 700 years before the birth of Jesus, yet he provided exact details of His birth, life, and death on the cross.
One of the highlights of the prophecies of Isaiah is the hope of salvation that the Messiah will bring. He uses a wonderful analogy when he speaks about salvation – the promise that we will be clothed in righteousness. As we saw last week, the love of God is beyond human understanding. And still, He goes infinitely further in His gifts of grace to us. He not only loves us and offers us forgiveness, but He clothes us with righteousness. The theological term for this is justification by grace. By His grace we are now justified, and we’re able to stand in a right relationship with Him once more. When you are justified by grace, God now looks upon you just as if you’d never sinned. And justification is necessary. Without it, we would remain beyond the reach of God. He is holy, and the minimum requirement to come into His presence is perfect holiness.

This presents us with an insurmountable problem, because sin has tainted us. We dare not approach God because of the way sin has destroyed us. There is nothing we can do to repair the damage done by our sin. Had Jesus not come and paid the price of our sin, we would be doomed forever. But because Jesus did come, the penalty of our sin has been dealt with. But that’s only the start, because when God sees us now, in our forgiven, redeemed, justified state, He sees us as He sees Jesus. He has transferred the righteousness of His Son to us. Something incredible happened on the Cross while Jesus hung there. Not only did He take our sin upon Himself, but at the same time, He placed His righteousness upon us. We are now clothed in the righteousness of Jesus.
Isaiah talks about this wonderful promise in verse 10: “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
Isaiah spoke of the believer’s rejoicing regarding our relationship with God, and there is an abundance of joy. “I delight greatly in the Lord.” The joy we have in Christ rises above the trials and tribulations of this life.

1 Peter 1:6-9 says, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
Isaiah spoke of greatly rejoicing in the Lord. He spoke of a joyful soul in the God he served. This kind of rejoicing was not temporal or influenced by outside circumstances. His rejoicing was in God.
And just like Isaiah, we have much to rejoice in through Jesus. He has offered grace where judgment was deserved. We have been saved by His grace and placed within the family of God. We’re not merely forgiven, but we have the righteousness of Jesus given to us as well. We are promised eternal life and a glorious inheritance in heaven. Why would we not rejoice in those things?
Christians are now clothed in the garments of salvation. It’s the ultimate rags to riches story. We all were born in sin and separated from God. It’s been said that even as we drew our first breath, there were three strikes against us. We stood condemned, and in desperate need of salvation.

It’s interesting that the vast majority of people are aware of this need. There is actually a very small percentage of the world’s population who believe that once you draw your last breath, that’s it. You live, you die, game over.
An overwhelming majority of people believe that there is something or someone beyond this life. There is an awareness of the spiritual part of our nature which most people are trying to find answers to. Of course, many are looking in the wrong places and are confused by all the mixed messages out there, but they are seeking.
As Christians, we know that in His mercy and grace, God has provided the means of our salvation through the sacrifice of His Son for our sin. Where we once stood clothed in the rags of sin and condemnation, we now stand clothed in the garments
of salvation. Christ bore my sin, enduring the judgment I deserved, so that I might be pardoned from sin and reconciled to God.
As you come to Jesus in salvation, you traded the old garments, stained by sin, and He clothed you instead in a clean garment of salvation.

And one of the great benefits of salvation, is the righteousness of Jesus which is also given, or imputed to you. The word ‘impute’ means quite literally, to transfer something from one person to another.
You see, being saved is one thing, but once saved, we need a new righteousness in order to begin this new relationship with God. Before salvation, we stood condemned in sin, having no way of living in a relationship with God. And as we all know, being saved does not remove the propensity to sin. We’re forgiven, but our sinful nature remains, and this creates a problem for us.
In eternity we will be perfect. There will be no trace or stain of sin and our relationship with God will be just as perfect. But for now we need some help.
Even though we’re forgiven and the promise of Heaven is ours, we still fall short of God’s glory, which means we’re still cut off from Him. And so, until such time as we reach perfection in eternity, we have the righteousness of Jesus here and now. Jesus has clothed us with His robes of righteousness. And what exactly does that mean for us? Simply, we are now acceptable to God. We are viewed as righteous because of Jesus. So now, when God looks at those who are saved by grace, He no longer sees the garments stained by sin, but a robe of righteousness obtained through Christ. His righteousness has been imputed to our accounts. We are accepted by the Father because of the Son.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
This reinforces the message of Ephesians 2:8-9. “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.” It is only by grace and through the sacrifice of Jesus that we are saved.
In the monthly newsletter today, I’ve touched on the age-old debate of the different religions, and how Christianity stands quite alone. This whole concept of Jesus offering His life for us and clothing us in robes of righteousness is the answer. God has done all of this for us. All the other religions are about trying to do the right thing in order to please or appease God. Other religions are about our search for God. Christianity is about God’s search for us. When Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist, God said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.” Do you want God to be well pleased with you too? Then you need to wear the robes of righteousness of Jesus. There is no other way of salvation, and there is no other way that your sinful nature can be dealt with.

We are not saved by our works or merit. We are saved by the good grace of God through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. God has made the way for our salvation. You don’t have to keep looking for alternative means, because there aren’t any! It’s all about Jesus.
Isaiah goes on in chapter 61 to use the analogy of a bride and groom at a wedding to reveal how we now appear to God. Weddings are beautiful ceremonies. The man and woman are in love with each other and are making a commitment together as husband and wife.
Isaiah spoke of how the bride and groom dress for the occasion. “The bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and the bride adorns herself with her jewels.” They have prepared themselves to look beautiful for each other. As the Church, we are the bride of Christ. Have you ever considered that you are viewed as a thing of beauty by God? Jesus loved us enough to give His life in our place. He purchased our redemption, and we are His. A life once marred and wrecked by sin is now cleansed and made new in Him.

The modern world has unfortunately hijacked the Biblical gift of Christian marriage, but in Isaiah’s time, just as today, God regards marriage as a solemn and a holy thing. The couple was expected to be physically pure on their wedding day. They had each saved themselves for the other, coming together in purity as they pledged their vows one to the other.
And this is a picture following salvation. Those who are saved by grace are viewed as the bride of Christ. He has purchased His bride (that’s you and I), free of blemish and sin, through His redeeming work on the cross. We are no longer dirty and condemned, but clean and pure through the cleansing blood He shed for us. We will be welcomed in to the Marriage Feast, not based on our merit, but through faith in the saving grace of Jesus.
We are complete in Him, because of what He has done for us.

The very first sacrifice made by God for us takes us all the way back to Genesis 3. “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” Don’t miss this point – God clothed them. The very first act of grace shown by God to sinners was clothing and protecting. This just shows us again that we’re not capable of saving ourselves.
A simple illustration is helping a toddler to get dressed. They can’t do it themselves. Try waking a two-year-old and telling him to get dressed, and be quick because breakfast is nearly ready, and see how far you get.
The same principle applies to garments of salvation and robes of righteousness. This is something we absolutely cannot provide for ourselves. God provides the salvation and He clothes us with righteousness. Providing righteousness is something which God does to us and for us. There is nothing we can do. Like a two-year-old trying to work out which arm goes where and which shoe goes on which foot, we simply cannot get ourselves dressed in righteousness.

Those who have tried it have come to the same conclusion that Isaiah did in Isaiah 64:6 – “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”
In order to make myself presentable before God, I have to come to an understanding of the fact that I cannot dress myself. My “righteous” acts do not help. My good works and all my sincerity and all my best intentions are doomed to fail, because until such time as I turn to Jesus, I am dressed in nothing more than filthy rags.
I cannot dress myself in robes of righteousness, but Jesus can, and He has. Isaiah understood this truth, and that is why he could say with joy and certainty, “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

Jesus is your garment of praise, and when you put on Him, you put on His righteousness.
Only Jesus can clothe you with righteousness. Self-righteousness is a delusion. We cannot make ourselves righteous, nor can any law put us right with God. Paul wrote in Romans 3:21-22, “Now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”
The Christian author and teacher Max Lucado has such a gift with words, and this is what he wrote in one of his books:
“We eat our share of forbidden fruit. We say what we shouldn’t say. Go where we shouldn’t go. Pluck fruit from trees we shouldn’t touch. And when we do, the door opens, and the shame tumbles in. And we hide. We sew fig leaves. We cover ourselves in good works and good deeds, but one gust of the wind of truth, and we are naked again - stark naked in our own failure. So what does God do? Exactly what He did for our parents in the garden. He sheds innocent blood. He offers the life of His Son. And from the scene of the sacrifice the Father takes a robe - the robe of righteousness. And does He throw it in our direction and tell us to shape up? No, He dresses us Himself. He dresses us with Himself.
We hide. He seeks.
We bring sin. He brings a sacrifice.
We try fig leaves. He gives the robe of righteousness.”
 
Homegroup Study Notes
Read Genesis 6:5-6, Isaiah 64:6 and Romans 3:23
Many people say that human beings are inherently good (although we’re all capable of evil), but these words challenge that view.
The Bible teaches that we are incapable of righteousness. Discuss this in your group. Do you agree with these (and other) verses? Why?
 
Read Isaiah 61:10
Isaiah rejoiced in the truth that both salvation and righteousness are gifts of God.
What is the difference between salvation and righteousness?
 
Why is righteousness necessary in order for us to live as Christian disciples?
 
Read Ephesians 2:8-10
As Christians we agree that salvation comes from God, and that it is He who clothes us with robes of righteousness.
Bearing this in mind, how are we to understand the purpose of Christian service and “good works?” (see verse 10)
 
Close by thanking Jesus that He not only paid the price of your sin, but that He has clothed you with the righteousness you need to live in a relationship with the Father.

Romans 8:31-39
31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all - how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 
Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, 21 to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
 
One of the most profound statements in the Bible is found in 1 John 4:8, and repeated in verse 16. It is a simple sentence of only 3 words, yet it speaks to every human heart that ever has, ever is, and ever will beat: “God is love.”
It is a timeless truth, and one that as the Church we need to constantly be taking into the world. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is nowhere near as complicated as we sometimes think. Yes, of course, there is much about God that remains beyond our understanding, but the message we’re to take to the world is simple, and needs to be proclaimed repeatedly: God loves you.
In the letter which the apostle Paul wrote to the Church in Rome – what we know as the book of Romans - he presents the Gospel in simple language. In chapter 1:16 he makes it clear that he is bold for the sake of the Gospel. “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” He goes on to say that the depravity of humanity is our greatest problem. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (3:23) Our greatest need is for a Saviour, and he goes to great lengths to explain that the plan of redemption offered to us by God is the only hope, the only option we have. He tells us that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone and in Christ alone. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (6:23) God’s love for us is real and will never fade nor change, as he writes in 5:8 – “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The message of the Bible is actually very clear. From cover to cover the message is much the same: our greatest need is salvation from the consequences of our sin, and God, in His great mercy, has provided salvation in and through Jesus, but what brings it all together and holds it all in place for us, is the measureless love of God. As Paul wrote in Ephesians 3, God wants us to come to some kind of understanding of His love for us, this despite the fact that the extent of His love is just beyond the capacity of the human mind. “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” He makes an important point here. If we are ever to get some kind of grasp of God’s love, we must be “rooted and established” in His love first. It’s a matter of the heart, rather than the mind. The only way we can know something that surpasses knowledge, is by experiencing the love of God for ourselves first. This means rising above the lies of the world when it comes to who God is, and what He is like.
In Romans 8:38-39, Paul makes one of the great statements in Scripture: “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The Message translation says, “I’m absolutely convinced that nothing - nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable - absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.”

This is a truth that so many people need to hear. In a world where we strive for significance and purpose, there are countless people who believe that they have no real purpose. You live, and you die, and that’s it. It is such a tragedy to see some people living in the depths of despair. They’ve bought into the lies of satan, and their lives have become meaningless and empty. This is why we need to take the message of hope to them. And that message could not be simpler: God loves you. And as Paul carefully points out, the human condition does not change God’s love. We’ve heard and read Romans 8:38-39 many times, but has the awesome truth of those words really taken hold of your heart? God’s love is so overwhelming and so life-changing, and Paul is determined to make it clear that the human condition does not change God’s love for you. As he says in verse 38, he is absolutely convinced of the reality of the love of God.
What we need to remember is just who Paul was, and what his background was. He was a Pharisee who hated the Church. He was personally involved in the persecution and execution of many Christians. He hated Jesus Christ, and he was determined to destroy the Church and the message it proclaimed.

And then his life was dramatically changed by God’s grace, but he never forgot his past, and it certainly kept him humble for the rest of his life. In 1 Timothy 1:15-16 he wrote, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His immense patience as an example for those who would believe in Him and receive eternal life.”
One of the key reasons for Paul’s boldness is that he knew God’s love personally. He never forgot that God loved him enough to not destroy him on the Damascus Road. Had the Christians of that day been asked to name one person to lead the early Church in their time, Paul (or Saul, as he was still known then), would have been at the very bottom of their list. Yet God loved him enough to graciously spare his life and used him as an Apostle in His Church.

There has never been a person that has walked this earth that God has not loved with an everlasting love. From the worst of sinners to the greatest of saints, dead or alive, God loves us all. God loves you, and there’s nothing you can do about it!
Not only that, but there is nothing that satan and his demons can do to stop God loving you.
Paul writes, “neither angels nor demons, nor any powers.” satan wants to convince you that you’re not good enough for God, and that because of your sin, He has rejected you. But this is not what the Bible teaches us. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but whenever satan reminds you of your past, just remind him of his future. What he and his demons do is to chip away at your faith and blind you to God’s truth to such an extent that they draw you away from God. They want you to feel that you are unlovable and unsavable.
But standing in the way of that lie is the truth of God and the love of God. The truth is that there is nowhere you can go, and there is nothing that you can do to stop God loving you.

In Mark 5 is the story of a man who was demon possessed. He had been banished from society and was living among the burial tombs. His home was a cemetery – a place for the dead. Yet, Jesus loved him enough to save, heal, deliver, and use him for His glory. In Psalm 139:7-12 David wrote, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”
What that means is that there is nowhere you can go that you cannot be reached by the love and grace of God. It’s time we stopped listening to the lies of the world, the flesh and the devil. No-one is beyond hope and no-one is “unsavable.” Jesus gave His life on the cross for you in order to prove how much God loves you.

God’s love is eternal, and it stretches above and beyond time itself.
Paul writes, “neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
What he is saying is no present or future circumstance will keep God from loving you. Your sins – past, present and future, cannot and will not change His love for you.
Again, God loves you, and there is nothing that you can do about it. The reason why you cannot do anything about it is that you had nothing to do with it in the first place. God made a decision to love you an eternity ago, and His mind is made up. It is His very nature and character that defines His love for you. Nothing can turn His love off, nothing can make His love cease, and nothing will ever cause Him not to love you deeply and personally.

John 3:16 is another well-known verse that speaks so clearly of the love of God, and I want to take a moment to look at just some of the gems in this verse.
What kind of love is God’s love? We have the answer to this in the opening words of John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world…”
God’s love is infinitely greater than human love in countless ways.
Firstly, it is a divine love. It is God who loved the world. The only love that we really know anything about is human love. Human love can be something wonderful. We have all experienced human love, and at times it can be so intense and uplifting, but because we are sinners, human love is imperfect.
But God, the author of all love, loves with a perfect, holy and divine love.
In fact, 1 John 4:8 and 16 say, “God is love.” Love is not something which God does, it is something which He is. Divine love describes His very nature, His character.
Secondly, the love of God is an unspeakable love. There is a small but significant word in the beginning of John 3:16: “For God so loved…”
That little word ‘so’ speaks about the intensity of God’s love, but just how intense it is cannot be fully described in human words. That’s what makes His love unspeakable. It’s interesting that so many people have tried to define the love of God, but the Bible doesn’t attempt to define God’s love - it only illustrates it, and John 3:16 is possibly the greatest illustration.
A third characteristic of God’s love is that His love is eternal.
When did His love begin? It didn’t. It has always been. God’s love had no beginning because God Himself had no beginning. It is not true to say that God did not love us until Jesus died for us. The fact is that God loved us, and because He loved us He sent Jesus to die for us. Remember Romans 5:8 - “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
God’s love is also universal.
“For God so loved the world.” Not just some part of it but all of it. Have you ever thought of the miracle of a universal love? Think of the billions of people in the world - people of all kinds and colours, good and bad, and yet God loves them all. He doesn’t love us only when we are good and hate us when we are bad, but He loves us all the time, though of course He does not love our sin.

This brings us to the next point - God’s love is an unmerited love.
When we are reminded that God loves ‘the world’, we cannot help but realise how unmerited His love is, because people in the world do not deserve His love. The word ‘world’ here refers to people, and it includes all people. It refers to the lost – “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost,” (Luke 19:10) and it also refers to those who insist on living without God. In 1 Corinthians 1:18 we read, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” The sad truth is that there are men and women all over the world who reject Jesus, and the Bible tells us that they are perishing, yet God’s love extends to those people too.
No matter how far from or how close to God you might be, the intense, indescribable love of God is yours.
God is in love with you!
How do we know that? In the words of that wonderful old children’s hymn, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

There is a wonderful picture of God’s unconditional love in His relationship with the nation Israel in Deuteronomy 7:7-9. “The Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath He swore to your ancestors that He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.” The implication here is that there is no human reason for His love for Israel. They were a rebellious, stiff-necked people. But He loved them simply because He loved them.
And that is how it is with you and me. He loves us just because He loves us. Nothing we ever did made Him love us, so nothing we ever do will make Him stop loving us.
Jeremiah 31:3 says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”
Those words are a great encouragement for every Christian. God’s love for you is an eternal love. It is filled with unfailing care and mercy. God does not say, “I will love you,” but “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
1 John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us.”
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There has never been a time, or even a moment, when He did not love you, and nothing but the love of God could accomplish such an amazing feat. He loved us and sent Jesus to give His life for us. The Cross of Calvary is undeniable evidence of His love for you.
Whenever you feel that you might be questioning God’s love for you, just remember that Cross. He has always loved you, and He always will.
 
Homegroup Study Notes
Read Ephesians 3:14-21
List some of the differences between human love and the love of God.
 
At first glance, Paul’s prayer seems self-contradictory.
How is it possible for us to know something that surpasses knowledge?
How have you personally experienced and known the love of God?
 
Read Romans 8:31-39
The message of God’s love for us is proclaimed throughout the Bible, yet there are many people (including many Christians) who feel that God does not love them.
How would you respond to this?
Look at verses 38-39 again.
Discuss each of these things that threaten to keep us from God’s love.
What struggles have you had in these areas, and how has God reached through them to reassure you of His love for you?
 
Close by using Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 as a model.
Ask that God would give us the courage to proclaim this simple, yet profound truth in the world: God is love. 

Ruth 4:1-22
1 Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat there. When the kinsman-redeemer he had mentioned came along, Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.
2 Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so. 3 Then he said to the kinsman-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. 4 I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.” “I will redeem it,” he said.
5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”
6 At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”
7 (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalising transactions in Israel.)
8 So the kinsman-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal.
9 Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion and Mahlon. 10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from the town records. Today you are witnesses!”
11 Then the elders and all those at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12 Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”
13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”
16 Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son.” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
18 This, then, is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, 19 Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, 20 Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 21 Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, 22 Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David.
 
Last Sunday we looked at how Ruth stepped forward and in a bold move, visited Boaz at the threshing floor in the middle of the night to propose marriage. Throughout this series it has been important for us to try and understand how God moves in not only our interpersonal relationships, but also, and more importantly, how He works in our lives to bring us to Him. The story of Boaz and Ruth is a four-chapter romance story, but the bigger picture of the Bible is the ultimate love story. A story of how God loves us with an everlasting love.
We end chapter 3 with Boaz promising Ruth that he will visit her immediate kinsman-redeemer (remember that he was not first in line), but being a man of honour and principle, Boaz was trusting God, and was determined to do things the right and proper way. Ruth too, had to be patient and wait on the Lord. In the last verse of chapter 3 Naomi says to her, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens.”

So Boaz went to the city gates where the official business was taken care of. In the presence of several elders, he makes the offer to the closer relative to redeem the land having to be forfeited by Naomi. The reason it was forfeited by Naomi takes us all the way back to chapter 1 where her husband Elimelech had no choice but to sell up and move his family to Moab because of the severe famine. According to the law given by God in Leviticus, Elimelech (or his immediate family, as he was no longer alive), were given first option of buying the land back. This was to be done by Elimelech’s sons, or (as in this case) a close relative called a kinsman-redeemer. Boaz qualified for this role, but there was a closer relative, and this is the unnamed man he met at the city gates at the beginning of chapter 4. This man had first option to buy back the land – to redeem it.
At first he says he will exercise his right and redeem the land, but then Boaz tells him that should he do that, he would also acquire Elimelech’s late son’s widow Ruth as his wife.
It seems a rather odd to us, but it made perfect sense in those days. This is one of the ways that women were protected from quite literally being traded as nothing more than mere commodities, as they had no rights to speak of in ancient times. As far as society was concerned, the wife was there to produce heirs, and not much else, so the system that God put in place requiring the brother of her widowed husband to marry her protected her from potential abuse, as she remained in the family.

This changed things dramatically, as the first kinsman-redeemer didn’t want to jeopardise and complicate his own estate. Verse 6: “I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.” It’s important to see that was no under-handedness going on here. Boaz had called elders as witnesses, and in a sense laid all his cards on the table. Of course we know the end of the story in this case, but when we are completely open and honest in our dealings with each other, we can trust that God will continue to work His purposes out. We can’t change things just a little here and there to suit our own purposes, and then expect God to bless us and approve of the way we have manipulated the facts to suit ourselves. As Christians, we should know better, and our absolute integrity and honesty should never be in question.      
So the first kinsman-redeemer ceded his rights to Boaz, who was next in line to redeem Naomi’s land. Of course, this cleared the way for him to marry Ruth, so the pieces of the puzzle were falling beautifully together.
To finalise the deal in the presence of all the elders and other witnesses, the first man gave Boaz his sandal. Another rather quaint tradition, but it was actually quite important. It signified that the recipient (Boaz) was given the authority to walk on the other man’s property as the new owner.

We just have the words in black and white, but this must have been such an emotional moment for Boaz. He had trusted God, and everything just worked out perfectly. He was now free to marry Ruth.
In the next scene Boaz and Ruth are married, and she eventually has a son. She had been married to Mahlon for ten years before he died, but remained childless, and now God blesses her and Boaz with a son.
And what a blessing this was for Naomi as well. Verse 16 says, “Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him.”

Had chapter 4 of the book of Ruth ended with, “and they all lived happily ever after,” those words would not have been out of place. It really is a wonderful story of two lonely hearts finding each other and the joy of human love, but it is a human love story in Scripture, with God working continually in Boaz and Ruth’s lives. It’s a story that points us to Jesus, our kinsman-redeemer, and it shows us how God moves in the hearts of all who seek Him and love Him.
 
Out of the brokenness and sorrow of chapter 1, God faithfully brought hope and a future to the family name. Ruth’s son Obed would be the grandfather of King David.
We often can’t see or understand how God works, but when we do come into a relationship with Him, we learn that He does have a way of working things out.
The truth is that we’ve all struggled at times, wondering if God really is there and can He really be trusted.
But He can be. Scripture teaches us that. Psalm 33:11 says, “The plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.”
Isaiah 40:26, “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”
God was orchestrating a beautiful romance between Boaz and Ruth that He intended to be bring to marriage. He put a hope in their hearts that was not going to lead to a dead end. God’s will was for Boaz to be Ruth’s redeemer and husband. And nothing was going to ultimately prevent that from happening.

The more time we spend with God, the more we learn that we are able to trust Him, especially when we can’t see His purposes or where He is leading us to, but ultimately, as Romans 8 teaches, “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
Entrust your whole life to God. Rest in His faithful hands. God is in control. His purposes for your life will not and cannot be thwarted. Trust Him. He has a way of working things out…
Jesus says in Luke 18:27 that nothing is impossible for God.

What were some of the “impossibilities” in the book of Ruth?
It seemed impossible that Naomi and Ruth would ever be able to put their lives back together again. In Ruth 1:21 Naomi said, “The Lord has brought me back empty. The Lord has afflicted me. The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
It seemed impossible that these women would ever find rest and security. They seemed consigned to a life of hard labour and/or begging just to survive.
It seemed impossible that Ruth and Naomi would ever eat anything but leftovers again.
It seemed impossible that Ruth would ever marry again. She was a foreigner in Bethlehem. Even when she miraculously found Boaz, it seemed impossible that she would ever have a baby, having not had a child through 10 years of marriage.
But what seemed impossible in their eyes, was possible in God’s eyes.
What are some of the things that seem impossible in your eyes, yet are indeed possible by the will and power of God?

Never close the door on God. Never give up hope on His love, grace, goodness, and provision.
Life is hard. We all know that, and sometimes we feel so destitute and without hope, but when we put our hope in God, we trust Him to deliver.
Jesus gave His life for you. Why would He give up on you now, after all He has been through to buy you back – to redeem you? Romans 5:1-5 says, “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” What this means in plain English is that the best is yet to come.
The American Bible teacher John Piper said, “The life of the godly is not a straight line to glory, but they do get there.”

Sometimes the pieces of the puzzle just don’t quite fit. We don’t always get what we want, because life can be full of surprises and disappointments. People break their promises, and so do we. “The life of the godly is not a straight line to glory, but they do get there.”
I’m sure that the Ruth and Naomi of chapter 1 could not have possibly imagined all the blessings that would come out of the sorrow they were experiencing. But with hopeful hearts, they responded in faith to the romance of God. One scholar wrote that as they learned to trust God, He turned despair into delight, sorrow into salvation, brokenness into blessing, and pessimism into praise.

And the crowning glory of the story of Ruth is that her son Obed becomes the grandfather of King David. And David was the ancestor of Jesus Christ, the Kinsman-Redeemer of the world! Matthew chapter 1 begins by tracing the genealogy of Jesus all the way from Abraham, and Boaz and Ruth are in that list.
Ruth’s story endures to this day in the inspired Word of God as a constant testimony of the love of God.
Ruth’s name endures to this day in the genealogy of the Saviour of the world.
Ruth’s hope endures to this day in the hearts of millions who have found the Kinsman-Redeemer for their souls.
Boaz’s and Ruth’s stories are our stories too. Just as their romance ends in marriage, so does our romance with God ultimately end in marriage. Revelation 19:7-9 says, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. Then the angel said to me, write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ And he added, ‘These are the true words of God.’”

John Piper wrote this about the story of Ruth: “The book of Ruth wants to teach us that God’s purpose for the life of His people is to connect us to something far greater than ourselves. God wants us to know that when we follow Him, our lives always mean more than we think they do. For the Christian there is always a connection between the ordinary events of life and the stupendous work of God in history. Everything we do in obedience to God, no matter how small, is significant. It is part of a cosmic mosaic which God is painting to display the greatness of His power and wisdom to the world and to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. The deep satisfaction of the Christian life is that it is not given over to trifles. Serving a widowed mother-in-law, gleaning in a field, falling in love, having a baby - for the Christian these things are all connected to eternity. They are part of something so much bigger than they seem.”

The book of Ruth is only four chapters long, but each chapter describes a stage in the human experience. I’d encourage you to read the whole book again, and you will find yourself somewhere in that story.
Your spiritual journey is described in that book. The question is, where?
Maybe you are still in chapter 1, feeling the heaviness of sorrow and pain. Despite this, even now God is romancing you to come to the end of yourself, to find the beginning of Him.
Maybe you’re in chapter 2, wandering through life, looking for refuge. If this is where you are, know that God is romancing you to find refuge and protection under His wings.
Maybe you are in chapter 3, needing to find salvation, but you don’t know how to do it. God is romancing you to go to the threshing floor and by faith claim Jesus as your personal Kinsman-Redeemer.
And maybe you are rejoicing in chapter 4, glowing with the joy of God’s goodness to you. The good news is that God is still romancing you, because the best is yet to come. There is a wedding feast in Heaven, and you’re invited…
 
Homegroup Study Notes
 
Read the whole of the book of Ruth before you meet.
 
What are some of the things you have learned about God and His ways as you have worked through the story of Ruth?
What have you learned about yourself?
 
The four chapters describe four different stages of the human experience: 1. Sorrow and loneliness, 2. Seeking answers to the big questions of life, 3. Understanding the need for salvation, but not sure of the next step, and 4. Finding redemption and joy in Christ.
How have you experienced these different stages, and how can you encourage others who are on the same journey you have travelled?
 
As Christians we know that we are not isolated beings living in our own little world. There is a “bigger picture” in which we play a part. Bearing this in mind, discuss this statement by John Piper: “ “The book of Ruth wants to teach us that God’s purpose for the life of His people is to connect us to something far greater than ourselves. God wants us to know that when we follow Him, our lives always mean more than we think they do.
For the Christian there is always a connection between the ordinary events of life and the stupendous work of God in history. Everything we do in obedience to God, no matter how small, is significant. It is part of a cosmic mosaic which God is painting to display the greatness of His power and wisdom to the world and to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.
The deep satisfaction of the Christian life is that it is not given over to trifles. Serving a widowed mother-in-law, gleaning in a field, falling in love, having a baby - for the Christian these things are all connected to eternity.
They are part of something so much bigger than they seem.”
 
What would you say is the most important lesson you have learned from the story of Boaz and Ruth?
 
Close in prayer, thanking God for love for us, and His provision of Jesus, the ultimate Kinsman-Redeemer.
 

Ruth 3:1-18
1 One day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not try to find a home for you, where you will be well provided for? 2 Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. 3 Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. 4 When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.”
5 “I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered. 6 So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.
7 When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. 8 In the middle of the night something startled the man, and he turned and discovered a woman lying at his feet.
9 “Who are you?” he asked. “I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer.”
10 “The Lord bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. 11 And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character. 12 Although it is true that I am near of kin, there is a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I. 13 Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to redeem, good; let him redeem. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning.”
14 So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognised; and he said, “Don’t let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.”
15 He also said, “Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out.” When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and put it on her. Then he went back to town.
16 When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?” Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her 17 and added, “He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, ‘Don't go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”
18 Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”
 
Chapter 2 of Ruth ends by saying that Ruth continued to glean in Boaz’s field through both the barley and wheat harvests. This would have taken a couple of months, during which time it was becoming more apparent that Boaz and Ruth liked each other, but the relationship wasn’t really moving to the next level, so Naomi makes a hopeful and somewhat bold suggestion to Ruth. “My daughter, should I not try to find a home for you, where you will be well provided for? Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.”
Just what is a kinsman-redeemer? When God formalised the law and social structure in Leviticus, He first introduced the concept in chapter 25: “If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell some family land, then a close relative should buy it back for him. If there is no close relative to buy the land, but the person who sold it gets enough money to buy it back, he then has the right to redeem it from the one who bought it. The price of the land will be discounted according to the number of years until the next Year of Jubilee. In this way the original owner can then return to the land.” (Leviticus 25:25-27)

A kinsman-redeemer was a relative who functioned on behalf of another person and his property within the family circle. He redeemed property by purchasing what has been lost and returning it to one who was forced to sell because of financial reasons. He could also redeem people - a relative who was forced to sell himself into slavery. And he could also redeem blood, by avenging the death of a relative who has been murdered.
So Boaz, as a wealthy man and a relative of Naomi and Ruth, qualified as a kinsman-redeemer. Added to that, he also could fulfill the Levirate marriage law we find in Deuteronomy 25:5-6. “If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.”
This provided for a childless widow to marry an available brother of her deceased husband to raise up children in her deceased husband’s name. If a brother was not available, then the next eligible closest of kin could marry her.
Boaz was eligible on both accounts. Not only to serve as a redeemer for his family, but also to marry Ruth and raise up children in her deceased family’s name, that the name would not be lost forever.
But Boaz’s hands were tied in the matter of marrying Ruth. It was not up to him. He could not claim her for his wife. It had to be Ruth’s move.
And so Naomi, seeing that an interest was developing between Ruth and Boaz, took the bold move of hope to suggest to Ruth that she go and claim Boaz as her redeemer and request a marriage.
She tells Ruth to put on her Sunday best, and to go to the threshing floor where Boaz would be working that night.

The threshing floor was on top of a hill to catch the wind. Sheaves of grain were spread on the floor and trampled by oxen. The people then took a pitchfork and threw the grain up into the air so that the chaff would be blown away and the good grain would come down on the threshing floor.
When the windy season came to an end, they held a feast, and all the families came up and camped around the threshing floor, which meant that there were many people there. After the feast was over, the men would sleep around the grain to protect it from thieves.
Ruth goes to where Boaz is sleeping and comes and uncovers his feet and lays down. In the middle of the night he wakes up to find a woman at his feet, and asks who she is. She answers in verse 9, “I am your servant Ruth. Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer.”
What she says here is significant. In the previous chapter, Boaz had said to her, “May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

Now, when Ruth asks Boaz to spread his cloak over her, she uses the same Hebrew word that Boaz had when speaking about protection under the wings of God. This is significant because it shows that Ruth recognised that Boaz is the agent of God’s providence. Boaz is God’s wing of protection. This was basically a marriage proposal by Ruth. “Spread your wings over me, as a husband would do for his wife. I want you to marry me.”
Ruth also tells Boaz that he is a kinsman-redeemer, so he able to legally provide this protection.
Some sceptics have suggested that Ruth actually seduced Boaz and that the Bible doesn’t tell the full story, but that completely misses the beauty of this unfolding divine love story, which was orchestrated by God. There is nothing in the story of Boaz and Ruth to suggest that anything untoward or improper happened.
We already know that Boaz was an honourable man, and he is overjoyed as he says to her, “The Lord bless you, my daughter. This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character.”

It’s clear that they were a perfect match. Boaz had also done his homework in advance, because he was aware of another relative of Ruth’s who was a closer relative than he was. This unnamed man was the first kinsman-redeemer, and Boaz did the right thing by giving him the opportunity to redeem Ruth before he did. Boaz wanted to do it the right way, and he trusted God and His plan for them. “Although it is true that I am near of kin, there is a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I. Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to redeem, good; let him redeem. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it.”
Chapter 3 ends with Naomi encouraging Ruth to wait patiently for Boaz to work things out.
So what are some of the things we can learn from this part of the story?

Firstly, Naomi. She had hopes that Boaz and Ruth would marry, so she prodded Ruth to move ahead and claim him. This doesn’t mean that we should dictate to our children and grandchildren whom they should or shouldn’t marry (although I’m sure we would like to!)
Rather, we should be praying for them, and encouraging them to build friendships and relationships with Godly people, especially when it comes to the more significant relationships of life. One of the greatest privileges for the Christian is helping those we love the most to seek God’s will for their lives.
Naomi witnessed a relationship develop between Boaz and Ruth through the course of the barley and wheat harvests. It’s also very clear that she saw the hand of God moving in their lives too. We need to always be aware of the circumstances that are happening around us. If we watch carefully, we can often discern how God is bringing things together. Of course, there are times when we need to step back and allow things to happen in God’s time, but we need to be praying and encouraging where necessary.
Keep your spirit open to what God is saying to you. As we spend time with Him in prayer, He will slowly but surely reveal His will for us. And certainly always test your own desires under the light of Scripture.

God will never inspire you to do something that contradicts the clear statements of the written word of God.
Naomi wanted the best for Ruth, and the beginning of chapter 3, where she encouraged her to pursue the relationship with Boaz is the turning point of the entire book of Ruth.
Had Naomi not acted on her God-given hope, Ruth and Boaz may never have been married, and the course of history would have changed.
We need to be sensitive to the promptings of God’s Spirit in our hearts, because we never know what small part we might be playing in a much bigger plan.

Probably the most important lesson we can learn from chapter 3 is that we must claim our Kinsman-Redeemer. Boaz as a kinsman-redeemer to Ruth is a beautiful illustration of how Jesus Christ is our kinsman-redeemer.
Jesus fulfills all of the requirements to be our kinsman-redeemer. Yet, the debt He pays is not to buy us out of a physical slavery and restore property that was lost, but to redeem us out of the bondage of sin and to spiritually restore what was destroyed by our sin.
Jesus is related to us by blood. He is the God of creation, and He created us in His image. You are not some cosmic accident that just happened. You belong to Jesus because He made you the unique person that you are. Psalm 139 says, “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
Jesus was also able to pay the price to redeem us. 1 Peter 1:18-19 says, “It was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

We live in a world where we constantly seek significance and purpose. Our lives here do have a purpose and we are significant, but we have an infinitely greater value in God’s eyes. If you ever reach the point where you wonder if you’re worth anything to God, just look at the cross and remember the price that Jesus paid for your redemption. You do matter.
Jesus said in Matthew 20:28, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
God has done everything necessary in order to redeem us, but like Ruth, we are the ones who need to reach out and accept His gracious offer of redemption.
There are countless people who reap many blessings from God. He loves all people – not just Christians. Jesus said in Matthew 5:45 that God “causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
But each of us must choose to actually go to the threshing floor and claim for ourselves our true kinsman-redeemer.
Because of our sin, human beings are held captive by their sins and are lost. The only thing that can set us free is a personal faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour. He is the only One who is able to pay the price for our freedom.
Boaz met the qualifications as a kinsman-redeemer for Ruth. But she needed to go to the threshing floor to claim him.

And Jesus meets all the qualifications to be your kinsman-redeemer. He paid the price of your redemption in full at the cross, but you must go and claim Him as your own redeemer.
And once we have been to the threshing floor and claimed our kinsman-redeemer as Saviour, we need to go back there often. Not in order to be saved again, but rather to be reminded of Jesus’ love for us. Personal renewal and fresh beginnings with God are important, because we are so easily pulled away by temptation and sin. We need to ask God to rekindle that love that so often fades. Today we celebrate Holy Communion. Have you ever thought of this sacrament as a visit to the threshing floor?
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Finally, as we saw Naomi teaching Ruth at the end of chapter 3, there are times when all we can do is wait on God.
When Ruth came back the next morning to tell Naomi about everything that happened, Naomi gave some advice that we as Christians often don’t like to hear when we are anxious about something. Verse 18 says, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”
This is often the most difficult part of faith – when no more action can be taken and nothing remains but to wait patiently for God to work out His will. It is at this moment when doubts can arise and anxiety can creep in.
As we all know, life doesn’t just work out the way we’d like it to. How convenient it would have been for Boaz to be the very next of kin eligible to be Ruth’s kinsman-redeemer. But it wasn’t to be.

Boaz would need to go and talk with this man to settle the matter. If he redeemed Ruth, then fine. Boaz was at peace with that. If not, all the better, but Boaz had enough faith in God to surrender to Him and His plan.
He left the results to God. And Naomi encouraged Ruth to do the same.
This should serve as a reminder to all of us. God may inspire hope in our hearts, and then expect us to act on it. But at the end of the day, after we’ve done all that we can, ultimately we must learn to wait on God to accomplish His will, not ours.
By all means, speak to Him. Tell Him your dreams and desires. He knows them all anyway, but He wants us to build our relationship with Him through prayer, and we also need to understand that He does know what’s best. Learn to trust that He will open certain doors, while others will remain firmly shut.
Waiting on God and leaving the results to Him teaches us many things. Once we realise that it is up to Him and not us, it helps us to appreciate God’s answers. We recognise that His will has been done, even if we don’t understand it. One of the hardest prayers to pray is, “Lord. I don’t understand this. None of this makes any sense to me, but help me to understand your purposes. Teach me to trust you.”

It is really hard – sometimes heartbreaking - when God’s answer to prayer is a very clear “no.” It’s a cliché I know, but there is a bigger picture that we just cannot see or understand. Maybe in eternity we’ll be able to look back and then everything will make sense, but one thing we do know is that we will have no more questions or heartache when we finally see God in all His glory.
Someone once said, “You need never ask ‘Why?’” because Calvary covers it all. When on that day before the throne we stand in Him complete, all the riddles that puzzle us here will fall into place and we shall know in fulfillment what we now believe in faith - that all things work together for good in His eternal purpose. No longer will we cry “My God, why?” Instead, “alas” will become “Alleluia,” all question marks will be straightened into exclamation marks, sorrow will change to singing, and pain will be lost in praise.”
Listen again to the words we sang earlier:
“There is a Redeemer, Jesus, God’s own Son; precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One. Jesus, my Redeemer, name above all names; precious Lamb of God, Messiah, O for sinners slain. When I stand in glory, I will see His face, and there I’ll serve my King forever in that holy place.”
 
Homegroup Study Notes
Read Ruth chapter 3.
 Discuss the role that Naomi played in encouraging Ruth in her relationship with Boaz.
How are we able to encourage others, while at the same time knowing when to speak and when to be silent?
 
In accordance with the rules governing marriage and property, Ruth had to take the initiative to ask for Boaz to redeem her.
As we have seen throughout the story of Ruth, Boaz had done all that he could to earn her affection, but she had to take the final step in sealing their relationship.
Discuss how Boaz is a picture of God putting things into place to win our affections.
How have you experienced Him drawing you to Himself?
How does Jesus fulfill the role as our kinsman-redeemer?
 
Why do you think it is necessary for us to revisit “the threshing floor” on a regular basis?
 
Read verse 18 again.
Surrendering to God’s plan and leaving the timing up to Him takes great faith.
What are some of your struggles in this area?
 
Close by praying that God would give us wisdom to see His purposes for us, and that He would teach us to wait on His answers in His perfect time.